| | Print | Email

The Impact of the Holocaust On Survivors and Their Children


Sandra S. Williams
Judaic Studies Program
University of Central Florida

For the 12 years that Germany was ruled by the Nazi Party, a central belief was that there existed in society, certain people who were dangerous and needed to be eliminated for German society to flourish and survive. Over time and locale, these people varied. They included Gypsies, Poles, and Russians, but always and most centrally, the Jews. The Nazis condemned the Jews to death and there was no escape. No action they might take, no change in their behavior or their beliefs, made the slightest difference regarding their death warrant. At every stage of the war, the Germans used their military superiority to crush and terrorize the Jews. Above all was the threat of massive reprisals. Hundreds were shot for the resistance of a single person. Thousands of Nazis and their accomplices combed the cities and countryside of Europe to sniff out Jews, trapping every Jewish person who tried to slip through their fingers. This was a goal to which the Nazis devoted themselves with the greatest efficiency. The Jews were generally abandoned by their neighbors and by the free world. They had no country of their own to which they could turn; and they had no means of self defense. The majority of the populations in which they lived remained indifferent to their fate. Many even helped the Nazis to imprison and deport Jews to the death camps.    

Read the complete paper >